A Book Review by Tony Williams. By using “Euro-Westerns” Grant reveals his respect for the genre, his refusal to acquiesce in previous terminology and his dedication to writing what is the most definite study of the genre it has ever received.” Although European Westerns and their Mexican counterparts influenced the […]
Cycles of Regret: Children of Divorce (1927)
By Tony Williams. While Children of Divorce appears to have some superficial resemblances to those DeMille “roaring 20s” catalogs of the foibles and foolishness of the idle rich, its underlying premises are more somber. The home video release of Children of Divorce is the latest collaboration between Flicker Alley and […]
The Peckinpah Masterpiece that Never Was: Major Dundee (Arrow Video)
By Tony Williams. Major Dundee dissects the soul of a particular form of dangerous American ambition taking short cuts, left and right, to achieve its aims.” The films of Sam Peckinpah are as controversial as the director’s personality, especially the problematic question of Major Dundee (1965). Was this a possible […]
King Hu’s Cinematic Sublime: Raining in the Mountain (1979)
By Tony Williams. The spiritual is always a marginal element in Hu’s films that deal with the eruption of violent forces attempting to dominate others before some temporary victory occurs, leaving the survivors to live and fight another day….” This is the last of Eureka’s King Hu DVDs available for […]
New Transmissions: From the Inner Mind to The Outer Limits: Scripts of Joseph Stefano, Volume 1
“The Form of Things Unknown,” 1.32 (4 May 1964) By Tony Williams. Stefano was a master writer for the screen and capable of doing better things had circumstances allowed, as this revealing limited edition collection shows.” For those who have watched The Outer Limits either from its first transmission in […]
Tobe Hooper and the American Twilight
By Christopher Sharrett. Tobe Hooper became a poet of the American twilight, of the dead American Dream warned about by any number of artists…. As I have noted elsewhere, Hooper immediately lets us know that his concerns are broad and deep.” I recall my first screening of The Texas Chain […]
Missed Opportunity – Joanne Woodward: Her Life and Career
A Book Review by Tony Williams. Compared to the acting studies of the type produced by Richard Dyer and James Naremore (neither of whom receive mention in either text or bibliography), this study is severely lacking.” This book promises much but delivers little. Far from being “the first to be […]
Revisiting Romero’s The Amusement Park (1973)
By Tony Williams. Spoiler alert: key plot details are discussed below.–Ed. The Amusement Park has much to say both at the time of its production (1973) and certainly now – but it is doubtful whether many will want to watch it nor listen to its message. It is a deliberately […]
When Worlds Collide: Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero (1983)
By Tony Williams. Local Hero is much more complex than the frequent tourist’s bird’s eye of an unspoiled Britain. Something more complex, darker, and resonant appears with the frequent viewings it demands.” After some disappointing recent releases, it was welcome news to see Criterion return to its former status with […]
Post-War Malaise in the Rural US: Spring Night, Summer Night (1967)
By Tony Williams. I can’t help but reflect that noir and neorealism, contemporary film movements, may exactly be opposite sides of the same coin. (Isn’t Open City a noir, and The Sound of Fury an alternate version of The Bicycle Thief?) The key traits that they have in common are […]